Skipper's log. 0200 hours on July the sixteenth.

"Not much has been gone on in the last month. It turns out that bunker we were building when we first arrived here wasn't really a bunker, but rather a giant freezer. Some penguins have been assigned to bring ice and snow down from a nearby mountain, and that has been placed in giant containers suspended in the middle of the bunker. We drop all of our fish in there, which is kept below freezing to stop the fish from rotting. It's just about full now, and fish is getting increasingly harder to find in the bays and coves around our little fortress. Its a wonder what's going to happen after this job is done.

"Manfredi, although is morale is down, has been consistently bringing in the largest haul of fish and has occasionally been ordering around penguins our rank. He finally got noticed earlier today and is supposed to gain a promotion to corporal sometime next week. Makes me glad not just because he deserves it, but because having a teammate and friend higher up will help us get better knowledge of what is going on around here.

As for Johnson, he's finally starting to loose his belief that we're actually fighting something, as most of the men have already. He's become very quiet, and spends more time writing in his journal than anything. Manfredi yelled at him a few days ago for nearly falling off a cliff, and he almost looked like he was crying. I can imagine how he must feel, though; having your dreams shattered isn't something that goes down easily."

The Speed of Darkness
Chapter 11 - The Knife

"What was that all about, Skippah?" asked a very confused and shaken up Private. Skipper had closed the hatch and descended the ladder back into the HQ.

"An old friend came to pay me a visit, I guess," answered Skipper. To be honest, he was just as confused as his younger comrade.

"He was your friend?" said Kowalski, who had picked up the crooked dagger that Manfredi had left and was examining it. "Then why did he just try to kill you?"

"No idea."

"So that was Manfredi, Skippah?" Private said, "I remember you mentioning him before in the past, but you always said he was dead."

Skipper pondered over his past musings of his old teammates. The Manfredi he knew in his memories was not half robot. The Manfredi he knew wouldn't have snuck up on him with the intention of killing him. Manfredi had been like a brother to him, up until he had died. "I thought he was dead. I mean, I saw him die."
Private gasped. "So we just saw a zombie? A robot zombie?" His eyes became wide with fear.

"Private, that's highly illogical," responded Kowalski, "zombies are a myth. One can not scientifically bring the dead back to life; there's several insurmountable barriers that would need to be overcome before such an act would be possible. There's obviously a logical and scientific explanation for this, as there is for everything. Right, Skipper?"

"I don't know."

"The only explanation was that this Manfredi never died in the first place."

Skipper pondered over these words.

"Johnson is dead, let it go!" he shouted, looking desperate. "Now C'mon!"

"Leave no penguin behind," said Manfredi back to Skipper before he turned to run back into the collapsing bunker complex.

"Manfredi!" cried Skipper. He clutched the glowing cylinder in his hands and looked on as a portion of the ceiling collapsed, blocking the entire passageway that Manfredi had run into. "Manfredi..."

It was true that Skipper had not actually seen his comrade die. That had been the last moment he had saw his friend, his teammate, his partner, his brother. He had stood there for a few moments, wondering whether to run back in to help Manfredi. He couldn't, though. The world was counting on him to complete his objective. He hadn't heard from Manfredi from that day onward, and he had assumed the corporal had died.

"Skippah?" Private spoke, breaking Skipper's thoughts.

"What?"

"What happened with Manfredi? You've never really told us the whole story. I mean, you've mentioned him before in the past, but I never actually thought he was a real person."

"He was a great penguin..." Skipper sighed. Those were painful memories to dig up. He decided to change the subject. "Let me see that knife."

Kowalski handed him the dagger that Manfredi had very nearly stabbed Skipper with. The handle was wooden and wrapped in blue cloth, and the blade was crooked and slightly rusty. The dagger made him feel nostalgic, but he couldn't quite place it anywhere in his memories.

"Skipper, are you alright?" asked Kowalski, who had noticed his leader's long pauses and sensed something may be wrong. "You seem a little shaken up by this whole thing."

"What? Yeah, yeah. I'm fine, Kowalski."

The taller penguin arched a brow. "Skipper, we might be able to help if you let us know the whole story."

Skipper looked at his strategist. Part of him wanted to unload the whole story onto his teammates. He had never told a soul before in his life since that one fateful day. The mission had been completed, and he had honored Manfredi and Johnson's deaths by recognizing that they died to save him and every other living thing on the planet. He had since forgotten about his two comrades though, and suddenly he felt very guilty. He had mentioned them before, but mostly in a joking manner.

"That's a story for another day," Skipper finally concluded.

Kowalski's brow remained arched but he nodded in understanding. He waited a few seconds before speaking. "Well with that matter settled, I think it's time to begin thinking about the matters of zoo security. There's been two break ins with threats made in the last week, and we need to make sure the animals are safe." He flipped open his clipboard. "I suggest that one of us should keep watch for a portion of the night, and we could take turns in shifts. We could rotate on a biweekly standard, and..."

"No," Skipper interrupted Kowalski's mouth went agape—Skipper had never interrupted him in the middle of giving options before. "we don't need to worry about Manfredi. He wouldn't hurt any of the animals in this zoo, not the Manfredi I know."

"Skipper, he held a knife to your..."

"I know. I know. I have a feeling that he mistook me for someone else, though."

"Huh?" Rico responded, cocking his head in confusion. Private and Kowalski remained quiet, and silence enveloped the bunker.

"Back to bed troops. There won't be any more disturbances tonight." Skipper said as he made his way to the fishbowl ladder.

"But Skippah," argued Private, "where are you going?"

"I'll be right back. I need some time alone."

Private, Rico and Kowalski nodded in agreement, shrugged their shoulders, and then crawled back into their bunks.

Skipper emerged into the cool nighttime air. It felt good on his face. He still held the knife in his hand, which he toyed with mechanically. It felt familiar, but also like he had never held it before. He hated the confusion the dagger was giving him, and he tossed it aside.

Manfredi. Manfredi was alive. After all this time, Manfredi was alive. Manfredi had survived the impossible, and after all this time tracked him down to confront him again. But why? Was Manfredi trying to haunt him? The leader penguin sat on the edge of the ice floe and hung his head in his hands, slowly massaging his temples.

He didn't know what to do. He wanted to ask Manfredi questions. His old teammate new answers that he needed to know. Manfredi knew what ever became of Johnson. Skipper needed to find Manfredi and ask him. He needed to ask why Manfredi was half robot, why

But where did the Corporal go? He had seen the large penguin run down a pathway and outside of the zoo. He didn't know where Manfredi had gone. He didn't know where he could start looking. But he knew that he needed to find his old friend.

Skipper thought about his team. They would want to help him find Manfredi. They would stick by his side until they found him. The thought warmed his heart. But, he knew that this was not their problem. This was something Skipper had to to deal with himself. It was his confusion and uneasiness, not Kowalski, Private, or Rico's. He would have to keep this quiet.

/AN: I know this is a painfully short chapter for the amount of time I've not updated. Just trying to show that I havn't given up on this story!

I wanted to make this chapter longer, but it was just one of those short transitional chapters. This story is going to wind up having a lot of these, unfortunetly. AN\